The Mystery of the Red Submariner

We recently acquired a vintage Rolex "Red" Submariner. The Red Submariner (model 1680) was the first Submariner model to incorporate a date function on the dial. The "no date" Submariner had been in production for over 10 years before Rolex decided that even under water you might need to know what date it was.

There is an entire website devoted to Red Rolex Watches where you can learn more than you probably ever wanted to know about Red Submariners, GMT-Masters & Daytonas. The "Mystery" of the Red Submariner is in the years of its production. While it is mostly agreed upon that these Red Submariners were produced between 1966-1973 (ours is a 3 million serial number putting it at 1971) the author of Redwatches.com explores a few possibilities that cast some doubt on this. You can read all about it here.